Dirk Zoete (1969) also often works in series. After his drawings of theatrical stages with human figures, buildings and constructions, he started his series Study for Cactus Species and subsequently the Cactus Derivatives series. In these works Dirk Zoete uses abstract basic shapes with which he reinvents the cactus and allows organic shapes to can change into for instance some sort of small machine with blades. He thus creates an imaginary herbarium that breathes a playful freedom and a fascination for the wonder of nature. The exhibition also includes a Cactus Derivatives drawing executed in embroidery on textile by Els Huygelen, Dirk Zoete’s partner.
Over the past years, Dirk Zoete has also made more and more spatial work, stylized human figures, again made up of geometric shapes. They are a kind of distant cousins ​​of Kazimir Malevich’s suprematist figures or the costumes from Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet. They move the viewer through their extreme simplicity and playfulness. Very recently Dirk Zoete made a number of drawings of landscapes in Puglia, southern Italy, with stylized trees, fields and figures. These drawings are colourful and correspond to his Colour Studies in which people in costumes are presented on a stage. In Doppelmensch Dirk Zoete shows sculptures and drawings that are presented in a dialogue with Martin Assig’s works.